Mao looks in fine form, the only mistake being the UR & 2-footed landing on the 3Axel. I hope she leaves it out and just focuses on skating clean. Then again with what I've seen of the judging thus far, it looks like they're not marking down for obvious 2-footed landing with not even an attempt to land on one foot (aka German Pair). So who knows?

I'm not even excited anymore about the skating, not even the ladies or men, we're not going to get 3 spots; we'll be lucky to finish Top 10.

I wonder how Alyssa and Ashley are doing with their practices. I will be looking for Ash's triple triple.

Only thing I've found so far is this tweet from Eleonora D (@EleonoraD) posted about a 1/2hour ago: "Asada struggles with 3A, Wagner, Suzuki looked very strong, also Alissa did a good practice #Nice12".

Mao looks in fine form, the only mistake being the UR & 2-footed landing on the 3Axel. I hope she leaves it out and just focuses on skating clean. Then again with what I've seen of the judging thus far, it looks like they're not marking down for obvious 2-footed landing with not even an attempt to land on one foot (aka German Pair). So who knows?

Um......Aliona and Robin received negative GOE overall for their throw 3A. Other than the 2foot (which wasn't all that bad, considering that the flow of the jump wasn't all that disrupted), the jump had good height and distance...so it's understandable that they didn't get a full -3GOE deduction.

Mmm, has Yuzuru not been yet used to quality of the ice, at that time?
I have a feeling that his skating gets smooth, and the speed slightly increased than before. It's result that he worked on improvement. There're many opinions in worry about his body being thin. But he doesn't seem to intend to do muscular workout for the moment until the growth of the body including the frame is over. Therefore his jump not to depend on muscular strength is almost the way of Ladies. In fact, he learned how to do Mao's 3A. And so, Midori Ito said before "If body weight changes (even only 500 grams), it's influence to landing jump."
I think that he does weight control in his way.

Mao looks in fine form, the only mistake being the UR & 2-footed landing on the 3Axel. I hope she leaves it out and just focuses on skating clean. Then again with what I've seen of the judging thus far, it looks like they're not marking down for obvious 2-footed landing with not even an attempt to land on one foot (aka German Pair). So who knows?

It was fully rotated, so there was no reason for the BV to be anything other than the BV of a 3ATh

A few cultural notes. Can you spell deodorant and mouthwash? Ohh, some of these people are in desperate need. That’s all I’ll say.

Bread bread bread. The French love their bread. Everywhere you go you see bakeries and all sorts of breads. Especially the baguettes. Delicious breads. Interesting here that many middle aged and senior people here have gray hair!! So unlike the united states. Must be something in the water. How about a post work stop at a café for espresso/wine and cigarettes? Saw lots of that walking around yesterday. Manystreets here lined with tangerine trees loaded with fruit.

went to arena last night to watch tail end of men’s qualifying. Prince Albert came in with his entourage (sans princess) and was sitting in the box about 20 feet from me. Came to offer support for the skater from monaco. You know his name. It’s ugh… . Kim Lucine, Anyway I think he qualified and has a very cute program to Jungle Book music. Rather Junior music but creative interpretation. Quite the actor. Has one of the best hydroblade moves I’ve ever seen. Audience went wild.

Brian Joubert and the French lady skater mae Beatrice?? Were sitting in front of me. He looks very skinny and has dark circles under his eyes. The people in the boxes seem to have no regard for skating etiquette. Many that is. They walk and talk while skaters are on the ice. The boxes just behind boards.

Also an overhead camera swinging around and a boom camera at end of ice that goes down to the ice and swings back and forth. I imagine it has to be distracting to the skaters to be approaching it hoping it goes up before they hit that part of the ice.

Christopher Caluzo skating for Philippines. Didn’t he skate at Nationals?

Another cute Spaniard in the mix. Javier Raya. Skates to Cinema Paradiso. Also in suspenders like his countryman. Cute as a button but not nearly soup yet but he qualified.

Misha Ge from UZB had 2 great HIGH energy footwork sequences that audience appreciated.

Many thought Nan Song from China would burn the ice. He tried 2 quads, completed rotation on both but fell both times but still finished at top of 20+ that attempted to qualify.

If you watch, I am sitting just above glass partition behind boards, just off center ice, there is an add in green letters COSMECOLOGY Paris on the boards in front. I’ve seem myself on the jumbo screen several times. I’ll be waving.

Saw Jeremy and Adam last night on streets but didn’t hit me until after they had passed so didn’t talk to them. Ran into Patrick Chan on way in to hotel last night (at 11:30) and stopped to talk to him. I was nice. Asked him what he was still doing up. He laughed. Off to see men’s practice. Patrick Jeremy and Adam in group that goes on ice in half hour.

Today's:
Some cultural notes and things you won’t see on the broadcasts

Don’t get angry at me dog owners, but one of my pet peeves as an urban dweller is the gross practice of allowing dogs to piss and poop all over public grounds, landscapes, sidewalks and other urban features. At least there is a standard in US that people pick up after their dogs. Well it seems here in the high priced Nice Cote de Azur, that’s not necessarily the case. Dog poop all over the sidewalks. I’ve seen many dog owners walking their designer dogs, stopping to let their dog do their business on the busy sidewalks and then just walking on leaving the piles on the sidewalk. Disgusting!!!

There is a pigeon flying inside the arena. It’s often seen sitting in the rafters on center ice watching the action below. I think the Italians believe it’s good luck to have a pigeon poop on you though hope none of the skaters get such good fortune.

Continuing with the bathroom theme, I’ve mentioned the lack of facilities in the arena. Most of the readers are female, but imagine if you will going into the men’s room having forced yourself through a line of 100’s of women standing waiting to get into ladies room all the while with full few into the men’s room. Then standing at a urinal, doing your thing, turning around, zipping up, looking up and seeing women running by trying to get into an empty stall in the men’s room. Or how about washing your hands and finding that there is only 1 cold air dryer and no towels to dry. So lovely in every regard. I am not sure what will happen if arena fills. It’s not even ½ full as of last night’s dance competition.

Bought a 10 euro program yesterday thinking it would be like those at US nationals. It was a huge waste of money. Mostly pages of ads, letter from Cincuanta, history of French skating, highlights of French team and a simple list of participants. No other skater information or scoring area.

I was standing in a stairwell last night waiting to sit because a couple was skating, Our dear Mr. Cincuanta and his entourage pushed by me all of them blabbing, entered the stands (while the skaters were performing) and went to his seat all the while being greeted and paid homage by other skating “diplomats”. So odd that there is no respect for the skaters in that regard. On similar note, at another time, a French women came pushing into the stands while another couple were skating and hit a row of American fans. The French woman stood there waiting for the Americans to get up and let her in. To her surprise, the American women told her (forcefully) to sit down and wait until the skaters had finished. I think that translated well, the French woman sat down on the steps.

I see no sign of NBC, Universal Sports or Ice network. If they are here, they are hidden or maybe up very high in what looks like press area. Or they may be commentating remotely.

Kiss and cry set up is odd. You can only see the top of it from most of the arena. It’s sort of blocked off by partitions. So you know where it is, but one can’t see the skaters except if one is sitting in that corner. They go over there and disappear and are only seen on the big screen. You’ll notice there is a picture of the snowcapped Alps on the backdrop. We can only see the snowcaps and the skaters, sitting in the foothills, are not visible.

To give you a better idea of the set up, picture a large convention center, with cement floor. In the center of that space, a temporary rink has been set up. Building out from there, the temporary stands, and behind that, a concourse that wraps around. There seems to be no back of the house space to speak of. Skaters seen regularly jogging around the public walking area as they warm up. Also skaters coming and going through same entrance as the public.

As noted in earlier report, looks like it could seat 5-8000, I would guess less than ½ full at best (so far).

The SP dance started last night. I skipped the first 14 pairs. When I arrived, it was interesting to see MANY people walking and talking around the concourse. I was not the only one who was not interested. I feel bad about that sometimes but certainly not alone. That of course changed as the final 2 groups took the ice. Only thing I am sorry about missing the early groups is that I likely missed most of the worthy candidates for Susan Grote’s “Tacky Costume Award”.

Kavaguti and Smirnov took a what could have been a very bad fall. They were fortunate and well practiced in falling that they came out so well. He fell backwards as they were coming out of a lift, seems he just missed hitting his head as he landed on his back and she fell on top of him. An otherwise lovely program.

Volosozhar and trankov also had a near miss. He fell while pivoting in death spiral and could be seen in slow motion that the blade just missed hitting her head as she slid around him. Also again, another otherwise beautiful program.

The place went NUTS of course last night when Pechalat and Bourzat took the ice. Just a roar and rightly so. They were on fire and rose to the occasion and handled the pressure so well.

I missed Hubble and Donohue as they skated early but they held their place and picked off one couple after another. I said earlier in the season that this latin rhythm did not suit the Shibutanis and that it would be hard for them to medal again with this and the swing program. Neither they nor D/W seemed to have the ‘spark’ we saw at Nationals. Both good but something was missing. Virtue and Moir had the spark. And again, as I predicted early in the season took the SP. He’s just better at the latin movement than Charlie.

I won’t go into results.

haven’t seen a time schedule yet for ladies SP, but have a copy for free dance for those who want to tune in. remember were +5 hours on EST. Local time has Hubbell/Donohue on ice at 8:52, Shibutani’s 9:24, D/W 9:38, followed by Weaver/Poje, Pechalat-Bourzat, Ilinykh-Katsalapov, and ending with Virture-Moir on ice at 10:09.

I heard IN had a close up of yours truly. Was I ready for my close up? As noted, the group is sitting above the blue box seats in an area just left of center ice as you look at judges. On the boards in front is an add, with green lettering “Cosmecology” I am above the “e”.

Have not seen Joan J, but got a low down last night as I was leaving where she’s seated. Going to try and swing by today to say hi.

Ladies get started at 12:30 today. I think there are 30 skating. Need to get a skate order!!!

More.. He is great!
And a quick PS, what’s a report from me without musical commentary? It seemed like ISU was giving intensive classes in both Spanish and Portuguese last night during the short dance. Learn both languages by hearing a song repeatedly. Someone explain to me how so many of the 25 couples from around the world could pick one variation or another of the same 4 or 5 songs? Actually, don’t try to explain. There is no rational or reasonable explanation. With 1000’s of wonderful, easily accessible (especially with internet), latin songs to choose from, we heard the same ones over and over and OVER!! It was embarrassing. In one group, 3 of the 5 couples had at least part of their routine to the same song. The names of the songs escape me but if you watched, or will watch, you’ll know. One can see that in many cases, coaches, choreographers and skaters spent very little time researching to find music. I applaud those that worked to find something original and didn’t rely on the same old same old.

And to that end, I went to arena earlier today looking for skating order, a practice session going on I think for ladies, and right on cue, what was playing as I entered? Your favorite and mine, “Maleguena” . SURPRISE!!!!!